In its forty-first season, the Stratford Concert Choir is Stratford’s premiere vocal ensemble, presenting beautiful music performed at the highest standard.

 

Originally assembled to perform at the very first Summer Music Festival in Stratford, under the direction of Howard Dyck, the Stratford Concert Choir was formally established the following year, 1986, under the direction of Ray Daniels.  Ian Sadler became artistic director in 1989.  During his 32-year tenure the SCC regularly delighted audiences with performances of cherished sacred and secular works.  The SCC welcomed Alexander Cann as Artistic Director last season. Cann brings a commitment to choral excellence and programmes which inspire and entertain our community.

 

The SCC produces four concerts a season.  It performs a diverse range of repertoire, including major oratorios, cantatas, and requiems as well as smaller-scale sacred and secular classics.  The SCC works with professional solo artists of local and regional stature and prioritizes collaborations with other local musical ensembles. This season the SCC continues its successful collaborative production of Messiah with the Stratford Symphony Orchestra and also welcomes the musicians of Brassroots and the Kitchener/Waterloo Chamber Orchestra in feature concerts.

 

Alexander Cann is a choral conductor, keyboardist, and music teacher. Born in Toronto, Cann attended the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and has degrees from McMaster University (B.A.) and McGill University (M.Mus.).Cann has developed innovative and entertaining programs, such as Baroque Opera Choruses, Canadian Folksongs, live soundtrack to the film Metropolis, and Music from World War One. He is known for his extraordinary musicality and is an accomplished and multifaceted music leader as a choral conductor, pianist, and teacher.

 

Cann has also served as Artistic Director of Hamilton's Bach Elgar Choir since 2010. He is a founding director of the Three Choir Festival, a rotating choral festival featuring Bach Elgar with the Georgetown Bach Chorale and Oakville Masterworks Chorus. The most recent concert, in October 2024, featured the Festival Chorus in Handel’s Coronation Anthems as well as Cann as a soloist in Bach’s Concerto for Three Harpsichords in C Major.  Cann has been the Director of Music at Melrose United Church since 2013. 

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The choir continues to share its passion for choral music by presenting a diverse program of great works, developing singers to a high standard of performance and collaborating with other arts organizations.​